"It makes me angry, and it makes me sad," Hanna said. "How dare he take advantage of his own mother, much less his stepfather who has looked out for him since he was a teenager, you know gave him a job, and that's the kind of payback they get!"

Hanna said her stepbrother has been in and out of jail for a big portion of their lives and has often taken advantage of their parents, but this latest incident was too much. That's why she filed a police report.

Ware is wanted by the Horry County Sheriff's Office for 24 counts of forgery. According to the report, he wrote checks from the family's account to himself using his mother's signature.

"That's money that his own mother needs to live on," said Hanna, who is the power of attorney over her father and stepmother's affairs.

James Carthen Prosser, Hanna's 72-year-old father, died of lung cancer back in January, and her stepmother is suffering from Alzheimer's.

Hanna said her brother apologized for taking the checks and said he would correct the error, but the straw that broke the camel's back, Hanna said, came the day her father died.

"On Monday morning, Ben didn't know I had closed the account but he took two checks to the store and tried to cash them at Bi-Lo before they had even taken my daddy's body out of the house," she said.

Whether the abuse is physical or emotional or exploitation, the National Center on Elder Abuse said there are 24 cases that go unreported for every one case that is reported.

Bennie Ware's last known address is on Calhoun Drive in Garden City. If you know where he may be, contact the Horry County Sheriff's Office.